“Is It Your Turn Yet?”
October 2009

The “Fountain of Youth” for Your Smile

Long ago, Ponce deLeon, searched for a fabled fountain that would restore your broken down body. In my limited world of dentistry, history has not had a way to restore a smile that was destroyed from lost teeth. Dentures were the most common way, but, as you can easily observe most of the time, they did not restore the full smile, especially the ability to chew anything you want.

Over 20 years ago, I started placing dental implants. Initially, the technology and materials were so difficult and expensive to utilize, that they seemed, for a while, to be more of an effort for both the patient and the dentist than it was worth. Finally, in the last five years, the techniques and materials have progressed such that it is now relatively cost effective, comfortable and predictable to have the smile and ability to chew that you always wanted if some or all of your teeth have been lost.

The most typical situation we see is the individual that has had a large filling from adolescence and possibly required a root canal at some time and now the tooth, after many years, has failed by either cracking down the middle or a recurrent infection. Previously, when a single tooth needed to be removed, the options were a bridge, removeable partial denture or simply have an empty space in the smile. Now, we can remove the tooth and sometimes, put the implant in the same day. If there is an infection in the area, we can simply put some artificial bone into the socket, allow it to heal and then place the implant a few months later. Most all the time, the surgery of placing an implant requires nothing more than an Ibuprofen that evening to keep the patient completely comfortable.

The one caveate to this restored Fountain of Youth Smile, is that it takes time for the implant, now placed in the bone, to fully adhere to the bone so that a new tooth can be placed on top of the implant.
For those of you who may be confused about what an implant is: On a regular tooth there is a root that goes into the bone of the jaw and over the root is the “crown” or enamel that we can see in our smile. An implant simply replaces the root going into the bone and an artificial crown (commonly called a CAP) still needs to be placed over the implant once it has joined into the bone (about 3-4 months).

If I haven’t confused you enough with my explanation so far, there are many options on what to do after putting in an implant. The most common is what I just described for losing a single tooth. If you currently have a full denture(s) and feel you may need to chew better and more comfortably, many times mini implants can be placed into the existing bone to secure your denture, eliminating the need for a new denture. It hitches on to your denture, much like a ball hitch on a trailer. If you have no teeth and want to totally get back to the smile and chewing of your youth, implants can do that also, but, as one can imagine, the cost of this “Fountain of Youth” is the cost of a small car.

Some research found that having your teeth increases longevity an average of seven years. Maybe we HAVE finally found Ponce deLeon’s fountain of youth!

This is the first day of the rest of your life.

Written by: Dr. Daniel L. Steinke

"Is It Your Turn Yet?"
September 2009

Everyone’s Personal Journey

Right now I am in Chicago visiting my brother-in-law who valiently battled throat cancer and is seemingly, not going to beat the monster as he is now very frail, on oxegen, and is having difficulty summoning the energy to talk.

It is amazing to hear his perspective on this process. He reports never feeling angry about his selected journey and is not afraid of the outcome. Listening to him talk about the journey that each one must go through, and of his own, without negative emotion, but with gratitude for what he had in his life, is inspiring.

We, as many of you, have had too many recent stories of personal journeys similar to this and hearing the strengths of these people, when truly confronted with negative circumstance, is amazing. A good friend of ours had her mother slowly die of Altzheimers. It was through following her long journey with her mother and this woman’s perception of everyone’s journey, which led us to take perspective on what we all must personally go through in our lives.

Life is not predictable. If we see each day we wake up and enjoy life as a blessing, and hold no negative reaction or views of how one’s journey of life should go, we can find peace when the time for ourselves or a member of our family is near its end.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Article Written by Daniel L. Steinke, DDS, MAGD